Reparations and the Habré trial in context

This chapter focuses on the particular problem of victim satisfaction, considering reparations. One of the interesting features of the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) is that its victim participation scheme allows individual victims of crime to submit claims for reparations. The promise that reparations can be delivered through international criminal justice has now been around for more than two decades, but the first practice has only emerged in the last few years. The adjudication of the first reparations claims before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) has been arduous and revealed disagreement within and outside these courts over the nature, extent, and purpose of reparations in an international criminal justice framework. Considerable uncertainty surrounds whether these reparations schemes can live up to expectations placed upon them. It is in this context that an examination and a comparative discussion of the EAC's approach to reparations might provide some fruitful insights.